Leslee Udwin, a British filmmaker, launched a documentary titled India’s Daughter on March 4 under BBC’s Storyville series. It meticulously charts the story of Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi, who was gangraped on Dec. 16 2012 in a moving bus by six men. The documentary presents multiple perspectives — the parents of the young woman, the litigation lawyers for one of the perpetrators of the event, as well as the judicial system and the police force involved — in a case that sparked worldwide controversy around the topic of rape culture.

After the incident, India erupted into protest almost instantly, calling for justice around violence towards women. The protests, which lasted for over a month, questioned India's shaky judicial system and its ability to advocate for cases of brutality and rape. The documentary is instrumental in posing important questions about human rights, the nature of rape culture and the ability of society to bring about transformations. But, it uses a specific case to highlight the discrepancies of Indian society without acknowledging the underlying structure of violence that pervades it.

For the most part, India is a patriarchal country. Societal structure favors boys over girls, as is evidenced by the cases of female foeticide and infanticide. Women face violence in different ways and for numerous reasons, ranging from wearing specific clothing and choosing unconventional, often Western lifestyle practices that veer away from traditional Indian norms, to choosing to marry outside their caste group, tribe or clan. Many may disagree and argue that patriarchy is not nearly as dominant in regulating female social behavior, pointing out that this is an archaic view that has been changing gradually in India. The stark reality, though, is that this progress is prevalent in larger metropolitan cities within a specific class. Economically disadvantaged groups heavily populate India and face debilitating issues relating to education and empowerment. What stays out in such arguments, which privilege the middle class, is the reality of structural violence that deeply affects Indian society.

The very obvious issue of outside parties entering India and telling Indians how to solve India's problems exists. It is problematic by its very nature and the traction India’s Daughter has received is due in large part to the fact that BBC possesses the funding and resources to make this production possible. The same documentary, if made by an Indian filmmaker, would receive less attention or at least more vicious criticism than Udwin’s documentary has. But, if we can go beyond that and understand that this documentary has a specific intention that is aimed at drawing attention to the need for serious intervention, then there is an incredible opportunity to learn about the socialization of people that causes gender-based violence.

The documentary comes across as an attempt to demonize Indian men while presenting a wholesome, touching story of the young woman who was brutally raped and eventually died of her injuries. Mukesh Singh, the man who was driving the bus and one of those convicted of Singh’s rape, is featured heavily in the documentary while speaking about women and the event in an extremely degrading and misogynistic manner. His demeanor is cool and he seems completely unfazed by the depravity of the crime he was convicted of.

What goes severely unobserved is the fact that Udwin, despite not clearly exploring it, provides ample background about the social situations of almost each and every perpetrator involved in the case. Indirectly, she shows that there is an explanation for their behavior. In their world, women and men are different, relegated to different roles and subject to different societal norms. There exists no understanding of the concept of consent and equal rights. These are Western liberal ideals that do not fit their worldview in which violence towards women is normalized and accepted. I stand by the fact that the Delhi gang rape was an incredibly brutal event. But the film fails to expose the larger and much more common issue of general structural violence in India, as in many parts of the world. Placing much of the focus on the six men, and doing so in a way that attempts to explain the actions of all Indian men, fails to point to the larger problem of socializing and educating individuals.

Recently, Vogue Empower, an initiative by Vogue India, has begun to address such issues through short videos. One of their earlier videos titled #StartWithTheBoys charts the growth of different boys from infancy through adolescence, up until married life when these boys are constantly told that boys don’t cry. By the last scene, we see a young man twisting his wife’s wrist, leaving her injured on the bedroom floor. The video cuts to a popular Bollywood actress saying, “let’s teach our boys that they don’t make women cry.” This doesn’t point to men being terrible but draws attention to how, in the simplest ways, young men in India are socialized to be hypermasculine, which affects the larger societal functioning of future generations.

India’s Daughter is an incredible attempt at addressing the issue of rape in a country that struggles and strives to change its reality. It shows that change can come from within, if one can begin to understand the roots of the issue at hand and find a way to change them.